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The Food Program of Lifelong AIDS Alliance
By Heidi Lichtner, MA, RD, LDN
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Location & Telephone
Number: 1002 East Seneca, Seattle, WA 98103; Direct RD line: 206/957-1688
Main line: 206/328-89790.
Year Program Started: The original Chicken Soup Brigade started back in 1983. The first RD began working in 1999 and Ms. Sievers was hired in 2003. Ms. Sievers notes, "After a merger in 2001 with Northwest AIDS Foundation, the name was dropped in favor of the new all encompassing name: Lifelong AIDS Alliance. The Chicken Soup name stuck in the community so the revised name, Chicken Soup Brigade – The Food Program of Lifelong AIDS Alliance, was adopted. As we expand our services to other disabling illnesses, we now generally refer to ourselves once again as simply Chicken Soup Brigade, although the longer name is still technically correct."
Service Provisions: Chicken Soup Brigade provides a wide variety of services. Services include on-site visits and workshops. The workshops include a monthly nutrition class that is run by the RD’s from Madison Clinic and Bailey Boushay House along with Nicole and special guest speakers. After hours programs include various lectures on hot topics, usually run by Lifelong’s STEP program (Seattle Treatment Education Project). They also host a series of cooking classes once or twice a year with usually six classes in each series, run by Operation Frontline. The cooking classes are becoming very popular. Nicole will do a home visit if needed, mostly for disabled clients. She enjoys getting to see a more complete picture of the clients’ situation and notes, "kitchens speak volumes". Besides frozen meals and bags of groceries on a weekly basis, clients receive daily hot meals in the form of a congregate dinner at a nearby residential facility that houses a number of their clients.
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Number of Days/Hours on Site: Currently, Nicole works 28 hours spread out over four days. Her hours at the facility will most likely increase as the nutritional services program expands. Funding Source: Chicken Soup Brigade is funded primarily with private dollars but they do get the maximum amount of Ryan White funding allotted in Seattle for food programs, which accounts for roughly 25% of their budget. The RD position is funded entirely by private dollars. Is someone involved in program operation also actively involved with your local HIV/AIDS Health Services Planning Council? David Richart is the Director and is a vocal member of the local planning council. Two Chicken Soup Brigade volunteers are also actively involved in the planning council but they are there as unaffiliated HIV positive members. Patient Referral Source:
Most clients are referred by a Lifelong Case Manager, based in the same
building as Nicole. She notes, "We also have Case Managers on site at several
Seattle medical clinics that are great at referring clients. Many clients
refer themselves too, as well as some of the private physicians in the
community. As we expand our food program to other disabling illnesses we
have formed relationships with several local organizations involved with
the care of clients with cancer, multiple sclerosis (MS), etc. These organizations
have also started to refer clients for nutritional counseling and food
services."
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